Original 'Blade Runner' Writer Has Joined Ridley Scott To Develop The Sequel

With Prometheus hot on everybody’s lips, a new murmur has begun to break through on Ridley Scott’s other return to sci-fi – can you guess it? That’s right, a new Blade Runner movie is officially in the making, and now details on the proposed film have come in the form of a press release – and it looks like it’s going to be a sequel.

Scott has made it clear that the new film would respect the continuity of the original Blade Runner, and the official line is that the film will be a sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic – so far, so good. He’s also teaming up with the original screenwriter, Hampton Fancher (who was also instrumental in the optioning of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, upon which Blade Runner is based).

However, we’re not sure if Fancher will end up writing the new movie, as the press release carefully states he’s on-board to “develop the idea for the original screenplay” – which could mean someone else will step into the role of writing it.

As for the story, we’ll just have to wait and see, but Scott has already commented in an a recent interview that the central character will be a woman:

“I started my first meetings on the Blade Runner sequel last week. We have a very good take on it. And we’ll definitely be featuring a female protagonist.”

Scott will produce the film with Alcon co-founders and co-Chief Executive Officers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, along with Bud Yorkin and Cynthia Sikes Yorkin. Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, CEO’s of Thunderbird Films, will serve as executive producers.

The new film will be set “some years” after the events of the first Blade Runner, but as to how related the two movies will be, and whether there will be any returning characters, we can only speculate at this point. Check back to keep up-to-date with the latest developments.